October 31, 1968

The day the United States lost the Space Race

For over a decade, the Soviet and American space programs struggled to gain supremacy over the heavens. With the Soviets adding triumph after triumph—the first satellite in orbit, the first man in space—in the end, they declared victory in by landing a cosmonaut on the Moon, declaring victory in the Space Race and perhaps the Cold War itself.

In the wake of this devastating blow, the American investigative journalist Jack Schechter gets swept up in the intrigue of two rocket scientists communicating through the Iron Curtain, a Soviet diplomat’s cat and mouse game, and the lies that hold everything together.

The Podcast

An Alternate History Audio Drama

Ways to listen:

Part 1 – “The Space Race” – November 1, 1968

Breaking news! The United States has lost the Space Race to the Soviet Union. On October 31, 1968, Americans received transmissions from Cosmonauts on the Lunar surface. Jack Schechter, host of WNYX’s news program The Friday Review brings on Natalia Gromyko, a Soviet diplomat, to discuss what this means for geopolitics and the future of the Cold War.

Part 2 – “Cosmonauts at the White House” – March 7, 1969

The Cosmonauts who landed on the Moon finish their world tour with a White House dinner. On the other side of the Iron Curtain, a Soviet rocket scientist named Nikolai has been sending postcards to Jacob, an American working at NASA. He brings the postcards to Jack at The Friday Review to find out why Nikolai has disappeared.

Part 3 – “The Land of Righteousness” – March 14, 1969

Jack seeks Natalia’s help in locating Nikolai, but she has a word of warning to share with the idealistic journalist. Meanwhile, in the midst of the dismantling of NASA’s Apollo Program, the Nixon administration doubles down on defense.

Part 4 – “To Moscow” – March 21, 1969

Broadcast from the snowy streets of Moscow, Jack teams up with Soviet reporter Igor to try and locate Nikolai. What they find instead is even more troubling: a ransacked home, Moscow police hot on their tail, and a deepening of Cold War paranoia.

Part 5 – “Diogenes Will Know” – April 4, 1969

“Diogenes will know.” “Not enough.” The cryptic notes Nikolai left in the margin of a top secret document take Jack from Moscow to the Cosmodrome itself, halfway across the continent, to investigate the Soviet Space Program from within.

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The Postcards

Pieces of a puzzle

Jacob and Nikolai have been pen pals for years. Despite working in competing space programs and living half a world away from each other, they find kinship in correspondence.

But when pressure comes down from high ranking Soviet officials, mistakes become commonplace. People begin disappearing mysteriously and Nikolai suspects something sinister. Now it is your job to uncover the truth . . . a truth hidden in the very messages you possess.

There is a password hidden in Nikolai’s messages. If you think you’ve discovered it, enter it above.

Extras

The Gromyko/Graves Debates – November 10, 1968

In the weeks following the Soviet Moon landing, the American Broadcasting Company hosted a series of live televised debates between Natalia Gromyko, special attachée to the Soviet Embassy, and Abner Graves, professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University. Their spirited debates covered topics ranging from the differences in quality of life between the USSR and USA to whether a Moscow baseball team could compete in the World Series.